AN 80-year-old pensioner has been arrested after allegedly attempting to smuggle his dead wife onto a flight at Tenerife South Airport.
The bizarre incident occurred when the elderly couple were passing through security control, with the husband pushing his wife in a wheelchair.
Security staff at the busy holiday hub became suspicious when the woman appeared completely unresponsive as she was being wheeled through the metal detectors.
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According to a witness who spoke to Diario de Avisos, a female security guard approached the couple to assist, at which point the husband handed over control of the wheelchair.
The situation took a grim turn when the guard touched the woman’s hand and discovered it was ‘abnormally cold’.
Upon realising the passenger was not breathing and had no pulse, the worker immediately alerted her supervisor.
Emergency protocols were activated within minutes, with Guardia Civil agents and forensic medical staff rushing to the scene, but they could only confirm that the woman was deceased.
During questioning, the husband reportedly admitted to investigators that his wife had passed away ‘a few hours prior’ within the airport terminal itself.
In a strange twist, witnesses claim the man attempted to blame the airport facilities for her death, a claim that is currently being analysed by investigators alongside the cause of death.
The man was arrested at the scene and cooperated with officers.
The investigation remains open to determine if there is any criminal liability regarding the transport of a corpse or failure to report a death.
This macabre event comes just weeks after a similar incident involving a British family at Malaga Airport.
In that case, fellow passengers on an easyJet flight to London Gatwick were horrified to discover they had been sitting near a deceased 89-year-old woman.
Witnesses claimed her family had wheeled her onto the plane insisting she was ‘just tired’, though it was later revealed she had died before takeoff, forcing the pilot to turn the plane around on the runway.
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